Chosen
by Disenchanted310
Summary: Complaints about the usual, now boring demons in Sunnydale tempt an entirely new species of Big Bad to show their faces on the Hellmouth... Glory and Heartless really don't mix. Mostly a Buffy/Kingdom Hearts crossover. A work in progress, peeps!
1. Welcome to the Hellmouth

**Chosen  
Chapter 1 - Welcome To the Hellmouth**

****

AN: This is the first chapter of what will hopefully be a long-running FanFic, and I just want to make a few things clear - most of the chapters will be based on _**Buffy the Vampire Slayer**_** episodes, although there'll be several that are my own idea. Like this one, for example. While **_**Buffy**_** will be the main plotline, each chapter will have a different series collaborated into it. ****Also, the characters in this chapter have been approved by their creators at my request, and only Raven, Harry and Rhianna are created by my own warped self - all the rest belong to users at tI:L forums. I guess you can stick a massive 'COPYRIGHTED!!' sign on the their foreheads. Anywho, on with the show!**

As far as he knew, they'd been following him for hours; the moon had gotten higher into the sky and the sounds of traffic and the blissfully unaware citizens of Sunnydale had begun to die away. But that was to be expected, of course. It was the same way every night.

They were getting closer by the minute, he was sure of it. He could hear the scuffling of their feet against the grass, the sound of their quick steps dodging between stone slabs standing vertically in the damp ground. He paused between two of the headstones and listened, making out a hushed exchange between two of them... there had to be three at least.

His pursuers had stopped too, listening intently for any noise he might make. One of them, however, had other ideas: footsteps began sprinting in his direction once again, the other two followers rushing after the first, hissing out in frustration for their companion to stop being so reckless. He dashed forward once again, dodging expertly between the gravestones and huge stone crypts that were dotted around the graveyard. Most of them were a pale-white marble, ivy clambering over their walls and strong steel doors... those that weren't inhabited, of course.

He shot a fleeting glance over his shoulder as he tried to make out the dark figures behind him, only to crash into one of the stone walls of a nearby crypt. Groaning, he got to his feet and glared up at the vast stone building in front of him, suddenly developing a hatred for the damned things.

"Y'know, I'd've thought you'd learn to dodge those things - after a while, you start to make mental notes to avoid them." He whipped round, eyes darting around the cemetary to find the source of the voice. His eyes came to rest on the face of a young man, seeming to be no older than his early twenties. A smirk appeared on the man's face as he flicked his long black hair over his shoulder, obviously enjoying this charade.

A girl was standing next to him, a lot younger than the other guy. She appeared to be in her mid-teens and had long brown hair trailing over her shoulders. The girl didn't seem to be too happy out here, still trying to catch her breath from all the running. She glanced behind her as a rustling signalled the arrival of the final member of the group. A boy about the same age as the girl came crashing through the nearby bushes, stumbling slightly as his feet caught on tangled roots.

"Rhi, when I say 'wait' I **mean** wa-! Oh," The boy stopped next to his companions as he spotted the other standing against the crypt. He grinned, pulling two katanas out of a pair of holsters at his waist. "_Finally_. I hate following them and then realising you lost them two hours ago..."

"That only happens with you, Hawk," the older guy grinned, watching the other figure in front of them. "Raven Kontis never loses his vamps." There was a feral snarl from the creature hiding in the shaows of the crypt, and Rhianna Forger saw the glint of razor-sharp fangs. She pulled a staff made of dark wood from its own holster attached to her back, just as the vampire leapt at the group.

Raven ducked as the vampire soared towards him, sending it flying into a headstone. Hawk, swung his katanas at its head, narrowly missing as it rolled away and leapt to its feet again, snarling. Raven punched it in the face as Hawk thrust his left katana into the vampire's chest. It gave a loud roar of pain, but Hawk's attack didn't have the expected result.

"You missed its heart, y'great twit!" Raven snapped, kicking the demon in the stomach and watching as it shot backwards. "And you can't kill it with those things! Grace's told you a thousand times, you have to stab it with _wood_!" Hawk scowled at Raven and grabbed the vampire by the hair, smashing its face into another headstone.

"I couldn't do any harm _trying_, could I?!" he shouted, punching Raven this time. As Raven pulled back his hand to retaliate, both boys were pushed aside and fell to the ground. When they looked up, Rhianna was standing over the vampire, frowning. A wooden stake was protruding from its chest, and within seconds, it had vanished with a loud hiss, dust covering the grass where the demon had been lying.

"Oh... right," Hawk muttered, scrambling to his feet. Raven was already picking up the stake and following Rhianna out of the graveyard, ruffling her hair as he caught up. Hawk rolled his eyes and jogged after them, catching the end of the conversation the other two had been having.

"...and I just don't think there's any fun in doing this anymore." Rhianna complained, folding her arms and flicking her hair over her shoulders. "I wish something more _interesting_ would happen once in a while... we can't keep killing the same demons forever."

Raven shrugged. "What, you want a huge supervamp to jump out of nowhere and attack us?"

"Well _yes_ if it means we actually do something different!" she sighed, sitting on the fence at the edge of the cemetery. Hawk nodded in agreement, leaning against the wooden post next to her. "I think she's got a point... I'd rather have some Big Bad to fight instead of the same old vampires every damned evening,"

"And I suppose you'd be the one to kill it, right?" Raven smirked, shoving his hands in his pockets. Hawk scowled at him and pushed off from the fence, making his way out of the graveyard via the massive stone archway nearby. Rhianna and Raven follwed, shivering in the night air. For the last six years, they'd fought all kinds of demons, from vampires to poltergeists and flesh-eating worms... yeah, they didn't really want another one of those around any time soon.

But that's what you get living on the Hellmouth.

Hellmouths are places of increased supernatural energy. According to the mythology of one of Grace's many books, this is the area in which the barriers between dimensions are weak. The Hellmouth has a focal point, which serves as a portal between earth and at least one hell dimension. For these reasons, the Hellmouth attracts demons and other supernatural creatures, becoming a "hot spot" for supernatural activity... meaning that Raven, Rhianna and Hawk had had their work cut out.

Rhianna and her brother, Harry, had moved to Sunnydale six years ago with their mother. After a few weeks, they'd come to realise that things happened in Sunnydale. Things that couldn't be explained.

For example, the number of students at Sunnydale High School decreasing by at least ten every few months. Eventually, an encounter with a vampire and one of the school's students had solved the mysterious disappearances. Eventually, they had discovered that it was quite easy to kill the vampires - it was better than watching T.V. every night or turning up at school to find a police car outside and discovering that another of their teachers had been killed... usually by an extreme loss of blood via puncture wounds in the neck.

Grace, the school librarian had known about the demons that resided in the town for years and willingly provided information and help for the two children, who soon made friends with other students... who soon found out about the demons and vampires.

Telary Cri and Umiyuri Papaeyra were perfectly normal in every way, apparently... except that Telary proved himself to be quite adept at fighting vampires and Umiyuri turned out to be a 1000-year-old ex-Vengeance Demon. Rhianna took an instant liking to the two, along with Raven Kontis who arrived in Sunnydale two years after Rhianna and Harry. There was an immediate... _attraction_ between he and Rhianna, although there had been several problems with Rhianna's mother realising that she was dating a guy nearly eight years her senior. Anyway, enough of that. Let's get back to the Hellmouth, shall we?

--

Grace Wang ran a feather duster over a row of ancient books lining the Magic Box's shelves. She tutted when one fell out of place and tumbled towards the floor, swiping it out of mid-air. She pushed her glasses back onto the ridge of her nose and placed the book back, glancing over towards a large wooden table in the center of the shop. Telary and Harry were almost hidden behind a mountain of books littering the table, open on pages with pictures of vampires, demons and Magickal signs.

Shelves were stacked with books, bottles and strange-looking ornaments, a whole corner of the shop devoted to crystal balls. Candles and shiny trinkets were littered among the shelves of small cabinets, while a large shelf held only a single cactus-shaped ornament. Below it, a sign read, 'CAUTION: When activated, this trinket has the ability to melt human eyeballs. Since we don't know just how this can be activated, we request that our customers don't touch it.'

Umiyuri was standing behind the counter, gazing in an oddly endearing way at the cash register. Grace glanced over at her, giggling. Umi's head jerked up, bewilderment etched all over her face.

"What?" she asked, frowning slightly. Grace giggled again and walked over to her, resting her hands on the desktop.

"The money isn't going anywhere, Umi. You can relax." Umi smiled and opened the cash register's draw with a loud 'ping!'. Reaching inside, she pulled out a wad of money and sighed contentedly. "But it's just so _lovely_! How it's so green and papery and can be exchanged for goods and services!"

Telary ran a hand through his hair, groaning and shutting the book he'd been reading. "Grace, how can you expect us to read all these? Any more seven-syllable words, my head's gonna blow up," he grumbled, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. 

"Can't we have a break?"

Grace smiled and walked behind the counter, taking the money out of Umi's hands and placing it back inside the cash register. "Would you rather be doing research, or out battling blood-sucking vampires with the others?"

Umi giggled and placed her elbows on the desk, watching Harry's equally bored expression. "Nah, they'd be too sissy to do something like that."

Harry gave an outraged yelp, pushing a pile of books to the floor in order to see the two girls. "Hey, that's not fair! I'm just as good as Raven and Hawk!" Telary gave him a shove, sending him toppling onto the floor, next to his books. Harry rolled his eyes and got to his feet, brushing himself down. "Tel's good too."

There was a soft tinkling sound as the door to the shop opened and Raven, Rhianna and Hawk walked into the room. Rhianna gave Harry and Telary a tired wave and collapsed against the counter, resting her head against the wood. Raven stood beside her and Hawk sat down in a vacant seat next to Telary.

Grinning, Harry walked over to his sister and gave her a light shove. "Hey, you can't be that tired. You've only been gone for five hours." Rhianna smiled and yanked a lock of his hair, laying her staff on top of the counter. "I'm not tired, I'm _bored_... D'you have any idea how boring it is, tracking the same vampire for three hours, poking it with a sharp stick, then finding nothing else? Seriously, either we're getting too good, or the vamps are deciding to get fang-y somewhere else."

Umi was idly listening to Rhianna, when she heard a strange slippering sound, like a piece of fabric being pulled across the floor. She looked over Rhianna's shoulder and shrieked, backing away from the source of the noise.

Dozens of black snakes were slithering across the shop's floor, hissing at the horrified group blocking their path. Grace and Umi ducked behind the desk, while Telary, Harry and Rhianna jumped onto the table and countertop, keeping their legs out of the serpents' reach. Raven and Hawk tried kicking at the snakes, but they began to climb up the legs of chairs and cabinets, and the shop was soon swarming with them.

Raven and Hawk gave up, climbing onto the table next to Harry and Telary. "Where the hell did they come from?!" Telary asked, wacking a snake away from his foot with one of the books.

"I dunno, but it doesn't look like they'll be going for a while-" Raven began, cut off immediately when every single snake in the room disappeared. He glanced at Rhianna, wondering if she'd cast some sort of spell, but met an equally puzzled look when she glanced at her staff which still lay on the countertop.

"Are they gone?!" Umi squeaked, poking her head out from behind the counter. Grace stood up next to her and walked over to one of the cabinets, picking up a bejewled stand that had fallen over. Harry nodded, gingerly stepping down from the safe haven of tabledom. "How, though? I mean, Rhi didn't cast a spell, none of us did... How did they get in here in the first place?"

"No idea," Raven shrugged, frowning. He held out his hand and pulled Rhianna down from her perch on top of the counter. Rhianna glanced around, searching for some trinket or ornament that could've been activated and conjured up the snakes. She found nothing.

"Well, they'd better not come back!" Umi stated shakily. "I hate snakes... I mean, really, 

really hate them." Hawk shuddered, folding his arms.

"I think after tonight, we all will."

--

Harry crossed his dimly-lit room and clambered onto his bed, sighing. The snakes in the Magic Box had put them all on edge, especially since they couldn't see the source of the sudden bombardement of scales and hissing tounges.

Shuddering, Harry reached for the small table beside his bed and picked up his book, propping himself against his pillows. He'd just gotten back into the story, when a bright light filled the room. Shielding his eyes, Harry dropped his book and squinted into the middle of the room, where a green orb seemed to be floating silently.

Although the orb didn't move or, in fact, do anything at all, Harry was filled with a strange sense of dread. Just looking at the orb made him want to run out of the room and slam the door, locking the bright green light away. He groaned and shielded his eyes again, hoping that when he opened them, the orb would be gone... and it worked. Pulling his hands away from his eyes, he realised that the room was nearly dark again, and the orb had vanished. Frowning, Harry sank back into the pillows, running through the last minute's events in his head.

Downstairs, a phone began to ring. Footsteps approached and Rhianna waked into the room, sighing. Picking up the phone, she crouched on a nearby chair, twirling a lock of hair between her fingers. "Hello?"

"Rhi?" It was Telary's voice, and for some reason it didn't have its usual cheery ring to it. He seemed puzzled... and frightened.

"Tel? What's up? You sound kinda-"

"I've just been attacked by a clown."

"...oh."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"No, I believe you, but... what the hell?"

Telary sighed and Rhianna swore she could _hear_ him shaking. "I was walking home from the Magic Box and I decided to take the short-cut through that alleyway by-"

"You did _what_?!"

"Rhi, I'm trying to tell you what freakin' happened! Anyway, I was walking down the alley, and this clown just came out of nowhere! And it was like, I dunno, eight feet tall and it had this crazy knife and it came running at me-"

"So you're saying a mad axe-wielding clown attacked you in an alleyway?"

"Knife-wielding. And Grace called me when I got home and said she'd stepped into her apartment, only to find that the piece of floor she was standing on was about 50 feet higher than the rest of the room, suspended in mid-air... noticing a running theme here?"

Rhianna nodded, pulling a sheet of paper and a pen from the table nearby onto her lap. She began to write. "_Your_ worst fear's clowns. Grace's is heights, Umi's is obviously snakes and mine is-" as she glanced into the hallway, she froze, the hand writing down her notes no longer moving over the paper.

In the hallway, a dark shape lay on the floor, not moving. She dropped the phone, unaware that Telary was repeating her name over and over again. She walked slowly into the hall and turned on the light.

Raven was lying motionless on the carpetted floor, his eyes blank and staring. His chest didn't move up and down as he breathed and he didn't blink. Rhianna crouched down next to him, convinced that he was playing some sort of joke. When she touched his face and felt the ice-cold skin, she realised it was real.

She gasped and shook him, shouting his name over and over again, eventually letting him go and falling back against the wall. She didn't cry; she was too stunned to even feel right now. She shakily got to her feet and began to climb the stairs, her feet moving incredibly slow. Walking towards Harry's room, she reached out her hand and pushed the door open, turning on the light - she always hated that Harry never had the light on in his room.

Harry was lying motionless too, but his eyes were closed, as though he was sleeping. He didn't breathe, he didn't twitch, didn't make any sound. Rhianna didn't have to touch him to know that he'd met the same fate as Raven.

Tears finally made their way into Rhianna's eyes and she backed out of the room, her hand covering her mouth as sobs welled up inside her chest. However, her pathway was blocked as she left the room and she turned, looking up into the same green eyes that she'd seen blank and glazed downstairs not more than a minute ago. But these eyes weren't blank, and the eyelids blinked. Rhianna stepped back, confusion swirling inside her head.

Raven frowned when he saw the tears in her eyes and reached out his hand to touch her face. "Rhi, what's up?" She gave a small cry and fell against him, finally starting to sob. Raven looked down at her, puzzled and worried; he'd never seen Rhi this upset, not since her pet rabbit had died two years ago-

"Rhi, what the hell happened?" he asked firmly, gripping her arms and pulling her away from him. She sobbed into her arms, the sleeves of her jacket soaked with tears.

"Y-You a-and Harry... you were... w-were... " she couldn't finish her sentence, tears streaming down her cheeks. Raven pulled her arms away from her face and lifted her head up, forcing her to look at him. "We were _what_?"  


"Dead," she whispered, sniffing and wiping her eyes. She began to cry again as Harry appeared behind Raven, looking just as confused and worried as he did. Sighing, Raven wrapped his arms around Rhi and glanced over his shoulder at Harry. "You wanna say the line?"

Harry folded his arms, watching as Rhianna cried into Raven's chest. "Something weird's going on here."

**I know it's long, but since it's the first chapter I had to get a lot in here. So... what'd you think?**


	2. Welcome to the Hellmouth Part 2

Chosen  
Chapter 1 - Welcome To the Hellmouth Part 2

"So we're all agreed that something weird's going on here?"

"Personally, I'm a little disappointed there aren't any little party treats. Y'know, like those little cocktail sausages and crackers and-" Umi was cut off as Rhianna gave her a warning look, glaring at her from her perch on the huge sofa that took up most of the space in the little sitting-room. After the incident earlier that evening, the rest of the gang had been called over to discuss any theories they may have as to why in the hell their worst fears were suddenly popping up out of thin air.

Both Grace and Telary had repeated their stories to the rest of the group, who in turn recounted _their_ Terrifying Tales(TM). Grace was still a little shaken and continually glanced down at the floor, as though making sure that it was still there. Telary, on the other hand, seemed to have regained his usual vibrant perkiness and was currently fighting with Harry over the last remaining chair. Raven and Rhianna were still in shock over their recent ordeal, but were intent on solving the problem nevertheless.

"I just don't see how any of this can be happening. I mean, we haven't come into contact with any Evil Beastie in the last few weeks that could hate our guts for any reason, so I think that rules out any little vengeance spells and such. It just doesn't add up!" Grace said hotly, folding her arms and leaning back in her seat. Harry, who had won the Battle of the Chair and was now sitting next to Grace, looked intensely worried and shuffled his chair away from her. Raven chuckled at the expression on his face and leant against the wall, folding his arms. "Where's Hawk, anyway? He said he'd be here-"

The front door crashed open, announcing the latecomer's arrival. But the group sensed immediately that something was wrong, judging by the way Hawk's breath was coming out in short gasps, his eyes wide. He dashed into the living-room and leapt behind the sofa on which Rhianna was sitting.

Through the open door, a swarm of what seemed to be shining nails came flying through the door. They paused slightly, as though searching for something, then flew towards the sofa. Rhianna shrieked and ran towards Raven, the 'nails' puncturing the sofa as they hit. The others jumped out of their seats and backed against the walls, watching as the shining objects wriggled out of the soft padding of the couch. As they hovered in the air, the group realised that they were syringes with razor-sharp needles, the long piece of metal glinting in the light. They seemed to have given up on Hawk and turned to the others, one shooting towards each of them.

Grace yelped and held one of her precious books in front of her face as the needle flew towards her. She heard a soft tinkling sound and, when she slowly pulled the book away from her face, she saw that the syringe had smashed all over the cover. Umi simply ducked as another needle flew at her, sending it crashing into the wall. Raven dodged his own syringe and proceeded to yank Harry out of the way as the needle flew at him, missed and went flying out of a nearby window. Realising it's companions had been defeated, the last syringe simply vanished with a soft 'poof'.

Hawk's head peered over the top of the couch, fear still in his eyes. Rhianna walked over to him and held his hand, pulling him to his feet. "Thanks for the help," she said dryly, smiling at him. Hawk rolled his eyes and collapsed onto the sofa, sighing. "Wait till _you_ have a gang of razor-sharp needles flying at you. I bet you would've done the same thing!" The rest of the group sat down too, while Raven shut the front door.

"This is _nuts_," Telary stated, glancing worriedly at the others. "I mean, we're all seeing 

our worst fears and who knows what they could be doing? And who says it's just us? People all over town could be experiencing the same thing!"

"I think we'd know about it if they were," Harry said slowly. "We'd've heard about it by now, and people'd be panicking left, right and center." Rhianna nodded, making room for Raven as he sat next to her. "He's right," she said. "In any case, we have to find out what's going on here. People could be in danger."

Suddenly, Grace gave an excited squeak and reached for her bag, pulling out a battered and ancient book. She licked her finger and flicked through the pages quickly. Harry gazed at her incredulously. "You keep Demonology books in your bag? Let me guess - a little light reading for when the stress of _killing_ demons becomes too much?" Grace ignored him and placed the book on the table in the center of the room. Pointing at the present page, she said, "This is it. This is what we're looking for."

"'The 'Yirah' demon or 'Heartless'," Raven read aloud, scanning over the page. "'Can recognise a person's worst fear and bring it into reality. As its victim gives into fear and becomes weaker, their soul is lost and they eventually die.' Hmm... sounds lovely." he muttered, leaning against the wall again. Umi shuddered and closed the book, slipping it back into Grace's bag.

"I s'pose you want to go looking for this thing?" she asked warily, glancing at Hawk and Raven. "I, for one, don't want to see all those snakes again, and I'm pretty sure Rhi doesn't want two dead bodies clogging up her hallway." Ignoring Umi's comment, Rhianna frowned slightly. "But we haven't all seen our worst fears," she explained. "Harry and Raven haven't seen a thing, have you?" she asked, tunring to them.

"Nope," Raven stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. "But I'm just putting it down to good luck. What about you, Harry?" Harry jumped and got to his feet slowly, scratching his forehead.

_...what about the green light? Maybe that was the thing that's causing all these problems, and it would explain why Rhi saw her fear a few minutes after... but it didn't feel right. I was... scared? Not exactly, but I know I didn't like having it in the room with me. How can I be afraid of a shiny green ball?_

"Harry?" Rhianna asked, stepping towards him. "Did you see anything?" Harry shook his head, folding his arms. "No... nothing."

--

"So _this_," Raven said gingerly. "...is where you think this 'Heartless' is?" He, Grace and Hawk were in a dark, damp tunnel that smelt strongly of human waste and general grime. Water dripped from the ceiling as they walked along, moss staining the walls. Yeah. They were in the sewers.

"I don't 'think' the Heartless is in here, I _know_ it is," Grace said simply, shining her torch in front of them. "How d'you know?" Hawk asked suspiciously, stepping over the body of what appeared to be a rat which was floating in the ankle-high water.

"If I were an evil, fear-inducing super-demon, this is where I'd be," Grace explained, walking past the two boys as they stopped, staring at her. Raven glanced down at Hawk and muttered, "Well, that's encouraging." They began to walk forwards again, stopping suddenly when Grace called back to them. "Uhh... guys? Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but-"

"It's a dead-end." Hawk said dully, shivering. "Another one. Grace, we've covered most of the underground tunnels and we haven't found a single thing. Can't we go back up now?" Grace sighed and nodded, turning round. Raven and Hawk winced as the torch shone into their eyes, but she didn't seem to notice. "I guess so..." she muttered, trudging past them and climbing a nearby ladder. Raven paused before turning back to Hawk.

"The way she's acting, you'd think she _enjoyed_ it down here..."

--

Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were trudging through Sunnydale Cemetery, cold and tired. They'd spent hours in the sewers and were still soaked from walking through several inches of dirty water. After several minutes of mindless wandering, they came to a stop near one of the crypts. Hawk and Raven groaned and collapsed upon the ground, not caring about the wet grass beneath them.

"How long do we have to keep doing this?" Raven grumbled, scowling at Grace. "I mean, I wanna kill this thing but-"  
"What the _hell_?"

Grace and Raven turned to see Hawk staring at a nearby headstone, completely shocked. Getting to his feet, Raven walked over to him and knelt down, eyes widening slightly when he read the words carved into the stone.

_Rhianna Forger  
1990 - 2008  
Always In Our Hearts_

"What the...?" Grace stood behind the two boys, arms folded. Raven shook his head slightly, standing up. "My worst fear," he said quietly, gazing at the headstone. "What is?" Hawk asked, getting to his feet and leaning against the crypt.

"Letting Rhi die." Raven said simply. He and Grace jumped as a startled yelp came from behind them, and turned sharply to see Hawk falling backwards through the steel door of the crypt. They ran forward to help him, but stopped as they entered the huge stone room inside. Tree roots hung from the ceiling and four coffins lined the walls. It was the center of the room, however, that caught their eyes.

A gaping hole took up nearly the whole floor, what seemed to be spider's webs lining its sides. Hawk groaned and rolled over, only to roll straight into the hole. Raven and Grace ran forward and hesitated, before jumping in after him.

They fell with a thud onto the soft, dry earth several feet below the crypt. Hawk was already on his feet, grinning down at them. "I know we've been going for hours, but there's really no time for taking a break now," he smirked, gripping Grace's arm and helping her to her feet. "Shut it," Raven snapped, brushing dust and earth off his clothes. "Let's just find this thing before my jeans get totally ruined."

They walked deeper into the narrow tunnel that lead away from the dusty cavern they left behind. The walls were covered in webs and roots, the two substances swiping at their faces as they walked along. It was dark and Grace's torch had long since ran out of battery, causing them to walk slowly in the almost pitch-black. After a while (they weren't sure of the time; they knew it was very late, but since they couldn't see Hawk's 

watch, they were pretty stuck) they came to another dead-end, covered in thick webs and dust.

"This is it?" Grace muttered, scowling. "I thought there'd be at least one beastie down here- AGH!" she shrieked as something leapt towards her and knocked her to the ground. "_Grace!_" Hawk yelled, pulling an orb from his pocket. It rose into the air and glowed brightly, filling the small tunnel with light.

A huge spider was standing over Grace, its fangs dripping with a green liquid. Raven gaped at the massive creature before grabbing a rock and throwing it towards the spider. It bounced off the arachnid's abdomen, causing it to screech in pain and turn away from Grace. Hawk leapt at it, swiping at its eyes with his katanas and sending the creature's blood flying in all directions. It screeched again and crashed its front legs against Hawk, sending him flying across the cavern. Grace had gotten to her feet and opened one of her books, chanting a spell under her breath.

The spider now attacked Raven, its fangs snapping at him as he backed into the earthy wall. As it threw its fangs towards him, he ducked, causing the spider's fangs to miss and simply get a mouthful of dirt. Raven crawled underneath the spider and glanced up, spotting a bright marking on its abdomen; it seemed to be a black and red Heart shape, jagged thorns crisscrossing through the marking. Pulling a small dagger out from his belt, Raven plunged the blade into the Heartless' abdomen. It gave a deafening scream and began to wobble on its spindly legs, crawling away from Raven and blindly banging into the walls surrounding them. All suddenly went quiet as Grace stopped chanting, and for a split second, the spider froze. It gave a final screech of pain and fury, and exploded in the center of the cavern.

Raven, Hawk and Grace sat very still, covered from head to toe in green gunk. Hawk was the first to move, wiping a huge glob of the stuff from his face. "...Grace? Can you maybe _not_ use that spell again?"

--

Sunlight shone through the windows of the Magick Box the next day as the whole group gathered inside the shop. Harry, Telary and Rhianna were sitting at the round table in the corner, reading more demonology books as Grace and Umi squabbled impatiently at the till. Hawk and Raven were in a room at the back of the shop which was used for training; inside was a variety of different weapons and a few dummies for them to practise on, and a few startled yelps signalled that Hawk was winning their current spat.

"Y'know, it's weird that Harry was the only one of us who didn't see anything," Umi stated brightly, walking over to the three at the table. "Are you sure you didn't see anything?"

Harry glanced up at the other two at the table, now whacking each other on the head with two of the largest books. He turned back to Umi and studied her face thoughtfully. He'd always liked her slightly more than the others, but now he wasn't sure whether it was just friendship he wanted, or something a little more-

"Harry!" she said loudly, waving her hand in front of his face. "Did - you - see - anything?" Harry smiled faintly and opened his mouth to answer, but stopped himself. _Maybe you shouldn't mention the green light... it'd only get everyone worried, and what good would that do? They've got enough going on already without you dumping _

_something else on their shoulders._ Harry shook his head and smiled at Umi, propping his legs up on the table. "Nope. Didn't see a thing."

Umi sighed in frustration and walked back over to Grace. Harry grinned and turned back to his books, resting his head in his hands. When the time came, he might tell them; after all, it wasn't that important right now.

**Righto, that's end of the first chapter. I think I'll be writing each chapter in two parts now, since it's too much trouble writing the whole thing out at once... To be honest, I'm not really satisfied with this chapter, since it all feels like the whole thing goes to quickly... but I'm sure I'll get over it.**


	3. Hush

Now, there are two people that I'd really like to thank for helping me with this. Katana and Derest are my betas for this fanfic and they're doing a great job of it. They're both happy to help whenever I hit a snag and this chapter probably wouldn't have gotten up without the both of them, so I'd just like to say a really big thanks to both of you guys. -  
So, on with the show!

* * *

** Chosen  
Chapter 2 Part 1 - Hush**

A typical English Literature class at Sunnydale high: the teacher reading from one of the most boring books possible, a crowd of boys at the back of the room throwing paper balls at each other and thinking that the teacher doesn't know what they're doing, the group of eager girls in the front row who think that by writing down every word the teacher says they'll get full marks for their exam in three weeks... and the three 'outcasts' sat in an empty row in the middle, all practically falling asleep and thinking about the mountains of homework they have to complete as soon as they got home.

Rhianna, Hawk and Telary all had their heads resting on their desks, staring blankly at Mrs. Erinson as she read what seemed to be the longest chapter in the entire book... or maybe the clock was just ticking extra slowly today. Telary groaned and leant back in his chair, beginning to scribble on the single piece of paper on his desk. Hawk rested his head on his arms while Rhianna turned her head and closed her eyes, trying to block out the teacher's voice before her head exploded. A few seconds passed, before a sudden noise caused her to raise her head sharply.

The room was completely empty. The boys at the back, the nerdy girls, the teacher and Hawk and Tel were all gone. The lights were off, casting shadows across the room as the sky outside darkened unnaturally. Her eyes narrowing, Rhianna got to her feet and slowly made her way down the aisle, glancing from side to side as she went. Reaching the classroom door, she gave a final disgruntled look around the large room and pushed the door open, exiting into the long corridor.

The corridor was also empty and dark, the sky outside now littered with stars. Rhi walked slowly down the hallway, looking into the windows set into each classroom door and seeing that they were empty too. A soft humming sound reached her ears and she frowned, walking briskly to the end of the corridor, where the sound got louder. Turning the corner, she spotted a young girl standing at the end of the corridor, her hands clasped in front of her stomach. She was singing.

_Can't even shout,  
Can't even cry,  
The Gentlemen are coming by_

Rhianna bit her lip nervously and stepped closer, squinting through the darkness. The girl stared into space, her eyes unfocused. The song sounded like a haunting nursery rhyme, sending shivers down Rhianna's spine.

_Looking in the windows,  
Knocking on doors,  
They need to take seven  
And they might take yours_

_Can't call to Mom,  
Can't say a word,  
You're gonna die screaming  
But you won't be heard_

Rhianna stopped dead in her tracks, staring at the girl with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but felt a soft weight on her shoulder. Her heart hammering, she turned her head and gazed into a pair of bright red eyes. The creature gazing at her seemed to glow faintly in the dark, its skin a pale whitish-grey. Its skin was pulled tightly across its face and it seemed to be grinning at her, showing two rows of straight white teeth. It was dressed in a black suit, perfectly immaculate in every way. A harsh ringing sound suddenly filled the hallway and Rhianna opened her eyes.

She was back in the classroom, bright lights showing the students filing out of the room and Hawk and Telary getting to their feet beside her.

"Good _God_, that was boring," Telary moaned, stretching and grabbing his bag off the floor. "If I don't have another English lesson for another week, then I'll be happy as hell."

"I don't know," Hawk smirked, watching Rhianna scramble under her desk for her bag. "That stuff's gonna be on our exam and it's a pretty crucial part of the test... I'd hate to have missed _that_."

"Just tell me I didn't snore," Rhianna grinned back at him, waving to Mrs. Erinson as they left the room. Telary chuckled and walked next to them down the corridor, dodging the odd kid who was late for class. "Very discreet," he added. "Minimal drool."

"Wish I was as peaceful as I looked... I had this _really_ weird dream," Rhi plonked herself down on a nearby bench and pulled her bag onto her lap, gnawing her bottom lip thoughtfully. Hawk sat down next to her, raising his eyebrows at Telary.  
"Maybe you should tell Grace about it," he suggested. "She of the Books and Big Brain." Rhianna grinned and nodded, fiddling with a badge on her bag.

"It was kinda intense... maybe I will tell her. It could mean something."

--

A bottle crashed above Raven's head in the middle of the Magick Box, sending glass and a disgusting green fluid flying in all directions. "It's not my fault you're a crap shot, is it?!" he shouted at Umi, who had thrown the bottle and was now reaching for another. "Next time Grace wants us to train together, I'm switching with Hawk!"

"We're _fighting_!" Umi snapped back, forgetting about the bottle and pointing her finger at Raven. "I'm _supposed_ to hit you with the throwing knives!"

"Yeah, but I'm not a superfast demon who can move out of the way of your puny chucking skills!"

"You're lucky I'm no longer a Vengeance Demon! Boy, if I still had my powers-"

"You're a human now! I'm untouchable!" He ducked as Umi threw a particularly heavy crystal ball that Grace had been using as a paperweight. It missed and shattered above the front door, just as Grace, Rhianna, Hawk and Telary entered the shop. The two girls shrieked and ducked, while the boys yelped and dived under the nearest table. Raven 

grinned and folded his arms. "Some heroes you two are," he commented as Telary and Hawk crawled out from under their newly found safe haven.

"Yeah, well, you'd panic too if you thought a possessed crystal ball was attacking you!" Telary snapped, giving him an indignant shove. The others looked at him oddly, before Rhianna and Grace resumed their conversation about her dream. "'Can't even shout, can't even cry, the Gentlemen are coming by'. Yes, it seems vaguely familiar, so I'll look into it... it may take a while, but I'll see what I can do." Grace smiled at Rhi and stepped behind the shop counter, opening the till. Immediately, Umi shouted over from the back of the room. "_The money's safe and sound!_ By the way, where's Hari-kun?"

"After-school-clubby-thing," Telary said, collapsing into a beanbag in the corner and crossing his legs. Umi sighed in disappointment and began dusting a stack of shelves sadly, ignoring the funny looks she was getting from the rest of the group. "...anyway," Grace started the conversation again, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. "I've got a friend coming over from England tonight, he may be able to help with the research."

"Friend?" Raven raised his eyebrows, sitting in the middle of the round table. "You know people other than us? What's his name?"

"Jake Derestion." Grace said simply, in a tone that signified the end of the conversation.

--

A few hours later, there was a knock at Grace's front door. When she opened it, a man in his early twenties stood in front of her, looking tired and agitated. "Jet-lag." he muttered, pushing past her and dumping his suitcase at the foot of the stairs. "And the flight was terrible... why do they always show disaster movies on planes?"

Grace grinned and closed the door behind him. "Blame the airline companies for selecting them. Anyway, don't get too comfortable; I need your help with something." She stepped over to her desk, which was littered with ancient books and pages full of her own notes. The song that Rhianna had heard was written down on another piece of paper, stuck to the wall with strip of sellotape. "Ever heard of The Gentlemen?"

"...are they some new-age rock band or something?"

"_No_. Rhi had a dream earlier this afternoon and-"

"Rhi?"

"One of the kids I told you about. Seventeen, brown hair, likes Magick and a guy about eight years older than her."

"Oh, that one. What kind of dream?"

"Well," Grace pulled a handfull of her notes off the desk and handed them to Derest with a flourish. "She says there was this creature that was all white and wrinkly and wearing a suit. And there was a young girl singing this song." She pointed to the lyrics written on a small sheet of paper.

Derest glanced over the notes for a few seconds, before handing them back to Grace. "Nope. Never heard of 'em." And with that, he grabbed his suitcase and proceeded to climb the stairs, yawning. "...thanks for your help." Grace muttered, shoving the notes 

back into a drawer in her desk and sitting in the Spinny Chair just next to it.

At three in the morning, nearly every light in town had been switched off and all the buildings were pitch black... except for one.

A light was flickering in the window of the clock tower at Sunnydale High, highlighting the shapes of about a dozen figures inside.

Inside the small room at the top of the tower, inbetween all the gears and cogs, a small table held a black box. A shadow passed over the box as a whitish-grey hand reached for the lid and paused, turning towards its fellows. They were the creatures from Rhianna's dream. Their skin was glowing white in the dim light from a candle next to the box, bright against the black of their pristine suits. They all varied in size and height, different facial shape and eye colour, but they all wore the same black suit and the same haunting grin.

As the obvious leader turned to them, the rest of the group began to clap softly, all grinning and nodding slowly at each other. They were all graceful and gentle in their movements, seeming to approve what their leader was about to do. He nodded slowly back at them, smiling and reaching for the box. He opened the lid and a soft whispering filled the room.

Across town, the citizens of Sunnydale were all asleep, some alone and some with another. One by one, their mouths opened and a small whisp of a white smoke-like substance floated out of them. At Rhianna's house, she, Raven and Harry all lay sleeping too. Their mouths opened and the small whisps of smoke left their bodies too. The same happened to Hawk, Telary Grace, Umi and Derest.

All the whisps joined together in one long stream and flew towards the clock tower, in through the open window and into the box, which closed itself when no more whisps came. The creature next to the box grinned happily and again turned to the others, who once again started clapping, one reaching forward to shake his hand.

--

At 7:30 the next morning, Rhianna and Harry were starting to wake up. Glancing at Raven's sleeping form, Rhi left the room, yawning. She scowled when she noticed that Harry had beaten her to the bathroom and stood outside, folding her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. A few minutes later, Harry opened the door and grinned at her, raising his hand. His lips mouthed the words 'G'morning!' but no sound escaped his lips.

He frowned and tried again, and when he still couldn't say the small sentence, panic appeared in his eyes. Stepping out of the bathroom and reaching for his perplexed sister, he mouthed the words 'Rhi! Can you hear me?!"

Rhianna shook her head, her lips forming the word 'No...'. Her eyes widened and she pointed to her ears, obviously starting to panic too. 'I've gone deaf!'

'I don't think so!' Harry mouthed slowly, trying to make it easier for her to understand what he was trying to say. 'We can't speak!'

The pair of them ran into Raven's room, who was now sitting crosslegged on the bed, 

reading a book. When the two began waving their arms at him, he raised eyebrows and tried to speak. Stopping halfway through his sentence, he stared at the flustered pair in front of him. Very slowly, he mouthed 'What's going on?'

Harry began mouthing words very fast, causing Rhianna to slap him around the back of the head. She turned back to Raven and pointed at Harry. Raven tilted his head to the side and frowned. '...Harry?' Rhianna nodded and pointed to him and then to herself. Raven paused for a moment stared at her, before answering. '...threesome?'

Rhianna screamed silently at him and grabbed a pillow off the bed, whacking him around the head with it. Harry laughed, earning a whack with the pillow, from Raven this time. 'Shut up!' Raven mouthed, scowling at him. He got to his feet and reached for the phone by the bedside table. He pressed a few numbers and held it to his ear. After a few seonds of the dialling tone, he heard Grace pick up the phone. Silence met him on the other end and he opened his mouth to talk, but the realised that there was no point. Putting the phone down, he flicked Harry in the nose when he mouthed the word 'Duh.'

In half an hour, the rest of the group had arrived at their house and they were all gathered in the living room, watching TV silently. Telary came running in, slamming the door behind him and carrying a few white objects in his hands. Holding them up, he showed the others that they were whiteboards, with black markers attached by a piece of string. Grace followed him into the room and was grabbed around the waist by Harry, who proceeded to hug her in relief.

Telary handed the whiteboards to the others and sat down next to Umi, who didn't seem too pleased with the way Harry had greeted Grace. After a few seconds, Hawk clicked his fingers at the group, drawing their attention towards the TV. A news reporter was sitting next to a picture of a giant thermometer, which was next to a picture of the 'Welcome to Sunnydale!' sign at the edge of town.

"...reports are coming in of a phenomenon surrounding the city of Sunnydale, California this morning as hundreds of people are claiming to have lost their voices. Sceptics are calling it a 'city-wide hoax' while local scientists are suggesting, strange though it may seem, laryngitis. While the causes are under dispute, the whole town has been quarantined and no one is allowed in or out of Sunnydale. We'll bring you more on that as the story develops."

The group stared at the TV, unable to answer even if they'd wanted to. Turning her head, Rhianna spotted Grace standing a few feet away and began scribbling frantically onto her whiteboard. The others watched her intently, before she held up her board. The words 'Hi Grace!' were displayed neatly on the white plastic. Grace smiled and ruffled her hair. Telary scowled and began to write on his own board, flipping it round and showing it to the group.

'What's so special about Grace?! No one said hi to me!'

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**Hope you're liking the chapter so far! And yes, Jake, Derest's in the fanfic now. As always, please review! **


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